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Nightmare
Nightmare's not about fear. Fear is rational, fear is understandable. Nightmare is about terror. Blind, stinking, rabbit-fleeing-from the wolves terror. Oh, sure, it starts out innocent enough. The guy a little too creepy to talk to, the little old lady you somehow feel compelled to give a wide berth. But then the little glitches start appearing. You’re working late on a construction job, and you see a human face in the path of your circular saw. Blink, and it’s gone. You decide to clock out, but as you walk down the street you see someone you’d almost forgotten. Someone you’re afraid of in a way no amount of drugs or therapy could ever dig out. You make it safely home, and fall into the arms of your wife, shaking. But she’s holding you too tight. And she smells wrong. It’s not her, is it? And then you run out of the apartment, and the real terror begins. Dread Presence • Cost: None Dice Pool: None Action: Instant Duration: Scene The vampire exudes a deeply unsettling aura that reaches out to all those within her presence. The world seems colder and less welcoming, and everyone around her feels flickers of fear and insecurity. *Everyone in the vampire’s presence is on edge, she seems threatening and inhospitable. She adds her Nightmare dots to all mundane Intimidate rolls. *Bystanders are unsettled, and don’t want to oppose or challenge the vampire, save in self defense. They retain the choice, however. If they do act against her, they may not spend Willpower to bolster their actions (though they may still spend it defensively, or in predatory aura conflicts). *The vampire can alter the perceptions of those around her. She introduces little visions and unsettling tweaks to the way in which they see the world. She might give a doorknob a murder victim’s face, or make food look like a pile of maggots. These phantasms are always small (generally no larger than a small dog, or louder than a shout), short lived, and always unsettling. *Illusions are created reflexively, and may encompass no more than two senses. They are purely mental, and thus only visible to those she selects to experience them (which may be anyone in her presence). She may only project one illusion at a time, and it lasts no longer than a few seconds. Finally, the illusions cannot, on their own, cause actual harm or inflict debilitating pain in the subjects. Face of the Beast •• Cost: 1 Vitae Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Nightmare vs. Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance Action: Contested; Resistance is reflexive With a glance, one of the victim’s fears is magnified to the point of pure terror. If the vampire knows something the victim fears, she may choose it; otherwise the victim experiences whatever fear the Storyteller feels is most appropriate. He is overcome with an immediate need to flee the source of fear. *The victim gains the Frightened Condition. *The vampire may always designate herself as the source of fear while Dread Presence is active. The Grand Delusion ••• Cost: 2 Vitae Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Nightmare vs Resolve + Composure + Blood Potency Action: Contested, Resistance is Reflexive Duration: One Night (see text) The victim’s mind is twisted and perverted in ways invisible to the naked eye, instilling beliefs into him as false as they are frightening. *With a glance and a few words the vampire inflicts her target with the Delusional Condition. The vampire defines the exact beliefs, though they cannot be outright homicidal or self destructive. Players should keep in mind that they may only dictate the nature of the belief, not the reaction. (So “Your friends are out to get you” is acceptable, but adding “You must get them first” is not.) *If Dread Presence is active while this belief is inflicted the duration extends to a number of nights equal to the vampire’s Blood Potency. Waking Nightmare •••• Cost: 1 Vitae Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Nightmare - highest Resolve + Composure in the group Action: Contested, Resistance is Reflexive Duration: One Scene The vampire inflicts upon her victim or victims a miserable hallucination, a touch of the kind all vampires suffer in torpor. *The vampire creates a single illusion, a change or addition to perceptions, and projects it into the mind of the victim(s). Generally this change is no more than a single person, object or feature of the location. The Storyteller is the final arbiter of how dramatic a change can be. **Examples: creating an illusory monster to hunt them, causing all the colors of one building to be inverted, making the vampire herself appear to be a hollow faced ghost. *Illusions from Waking Nightmare are extremely convincing, covering anywhere from a single sense to all five. Unlike those created via Dread Presence these visions persist outside the vampire’s immediate vicinity, and indeed even beyond her death, haunting their subject until the effect expires. The Nosferatu adjudicates how the illusion behaves and reacts while the victim(s) is in her presence, but once apart it is up to the Storyteller to manage the fictional horror. *Waking Nightmares are always frightening and unsettling, even if they depict something otherwise harmless. The doll’s eyes watch you, the nice man has too wide a smile. No use of this power can create a pleasant illusion. No matter how convincing, the Waking Nightmare can’t cause actual harm or inflict debilitating pain. Alone, Waking Nightmare can affect only a single subject. With Dread Presence active the Nosferatu may afflict any number of people who are within her presence. They all suffer the same illusion and, while together, their perceptions are roughly consistent. Mortal Terror ••••• Cost: 1 Vitae and 1 point of Willpower Dice Pool: None Action: Reflexive; enhances The Grand Delusion or Waking Nightmare The vampire imbues her Nightmares with the sort of terror that haunts all vampires through daysleep and torpor. #'Mania': While suffering from the Delusional condition the victim’s morality and inhibitions are diminished. Acts which would normally be breaking points (such as violence, homicide, and self destruction) cease to be. So long as an action furthers their delusion, the victim can perform vile acts without risk of breaking, and receive a Beat whenever they do so. #'Killing Dream': The illusion the Nosferatu creates with Waking Nightmare, for those who can see it, becomes almost-physical. For the remainder of the scene it may inflict harm on victims as though it were real. The illusion attacks with a pool of the Nosferatu’s Intimidation + Nightmare versus the victim’s Composure + Supernatural Tolerance. Armor and damage reduction of any kind is ineffective against these attacks; however, not being actually real, there are limits to the harm the apparition can cause. It can deal no more than Nightmare + Supernatural Tolerance points in a single scene, and can attack no more than once per turn. The damage is always bashing. This damage disapears once the scene ends. Mortal Terror’s activation cost must be paid at the same time the vampire activates the associated power. Kindred with Blood Potency too low to do so may pay the cost over several turns. The final power activates once the full price has been paid. Resisting Nightmare Any mortal can resist Nightmare for one turn '''if a Willpower point is spent and a successful Composure roll is made (though the Willpower point does not add three dice to the roll). This roll is reflexive. If the roll fails, the Willpower point is lost and the target remains under the effects of the power(s). If the roll is successful, the mortal probably spends his turn of “freedom” fleeing the vampire’s proximity, lest he continue to be affected. Refusing to pay attention to the vampire, rather than fleeing, can allow a mortal to resist the spell for a turn, but the power resumes effect if the mortal remains in the Kindred’s vicinity. Additionally a mortal can ignore the effects of Nightmare for entire '''scene by spending a willpower dot. But one has to remember that most mortals under the powers of Nightmare don't realize that what they are experiencing isn't real. Only those who have wills of steel or those with some belief in the supernatural (founded or not) tend do this. Vampires resist Nightmare in much the same way, by spending a Willpower point, but Supernatural Tolerance is added to Composure rolls made for them and when the resist they can shrug off its effects for an entire scene. Additionally a kindred can shrug off the effects of a use of Nightmare that she is afflicted with entierly by spending a willpower''' dot'. Conditions Frightened The character is frightened to the point of losing rational thought. He must flee the source of his fear as quickly as possible, prioritizing this act above all else (including the safety of their belongings, friends, and allies). If someone or something blocks his way he must attempt to bypass it, even resorting to violence. If the source of the fear itself stands in his way he may not act against it, or approach in any way, collapsing in terror if cornered. This Condition may be repressed for one turn by spending a point of Willpower. It is removed at the end of the scene. Vampires, as well as other supernatural creatures prone to loss of control, must roll to avoid frenzy or a similar state when Panicked. '''Resolution': The scene ends, or the character escapes and does not return for the duration of the scene. If a vampire designates herself as the source of the fear and takes violent action against the target, then the condition automatically ends. Beat: The character willingly performs dangerous and potentially harmful actions (like jumping out a windows) to escape his fear. Delusional The character has developed a false belief, such as “someone is poisoning my food”, “a doppelganger has replaced my best friend”, or “there is a creature living in my apartment.” This does not extend to actual hallucination, so beliefs like “I am covered in spiders”, or “the man I am facing is an eight foot wolf-monster” are not reasonable results of paranoia. This condition cannot truly be repressed, but a character may spend a point of willpower to come up with a convenient (albeit often psychotic) explanation as to why it does not apply to a specific encounter. Resolution: The belief is completely disproven, or the source of said paranoia is destroyed. Beat: Whenever the character adheres to their paranoid belief despite clear evidence to the contrary. Category:Rules and Houserules Category:Disciplines